This is our almost finalized plan for an year-long trip for 2 adults (my wife and myself). These are not the only destinations we would like to visit and the following is a more comprehensive list of places we would like to visit. Would appreciate your advice on the most cost effective routing to visit the places we want to go? We are quite flexible with the sequence of visiting the places and we picked the dates mostly based roughly on the best times to visit these places.

We have accumulated some airline and credit card miles which we plan on using for some of the internal flights in SE Asia and Europe. Here is a list of miles we have accumulated so far:

AAdvantage miles 325k
SPG 45k
Chase Ultimate Rewards 140k

Amex Membership Reward points 150k
United 35.5k
Southwest 5k

Thanks for all your advice on our plan for this dream trip!
-Srinath.

cristina puscas (272 days ago)

G'day Srinath

it's quite far in advance to price this trip. Airlines only offer availability as far as 11 months out and since you'll be traveling for (almost) a year you'd need to break the trip in two parts.

Unfortunately Indie doesn't accept miles but you are more than welcome to book those legs directly with the airlines to benefit from what you've gathered. Then you can just simply mark as "by land / on your own" the legs which you've already bought or plan to buy from the airlines.

As for your route, right now you'd be able to price the trip up to the Russia stop. So I'd suggest to wait until later in the summer or fall to price as much as you can (say in October you could price all the way to the Galapagos Island). Then, at a later time, in March 2015, you can price the rest of the trip.

If you want to get a price for the entire route - just to have an idea - you can bring all dates within 11 months of today (or when you are pricing) and then run a search.

Thanks Cristina. I tried pricing out the flights by picking earlier dates and it is adding up to be $11,500 for two people.

I am considering DIY option to buy the flights mostly because of flexibility and the option to stick to OneWorld only for maximizing the miles earned on the flights. How far in advance is it advisable to buy flight tickets to get the best prices?

Sean Keener (268 days ago)

Gday Srinath,

Our research shows that buying at least 72 days in advance (with 200 days in advance as ideal) as the best time to buy complex multi stop international.

Indie can almost always beat one world And star alliance head to head on price. Of course, that is not the only reason to use Indie. Service, understanding and expertise on these types of tickets are our forte.

Perhaps one of our agents can call you and work up a by hand quote and share some ideas on how to best utilize your miles in the context of this trip.

You are smart to be planning in advance like this.

One thought...a mileage hacking specialist might be able to help you get the majority if not all of your trip via miles. Would you like a referral to a specialist to try this as well? (They will charge you a fee todo it, but it's another option)

Srinath Anantharaju (268 days ago)

Hi Sean.

Thanks for your thoughts. Would love to talk to one of your agents and to work up a by hand quote and get some ideas on how to best utilize your miles in the context of this trip. Can provide my phone number over email?

Would also love to receive a referral for a mileage hacking specialist who can help me make good use of the miles we have accummulated, now that American Airlines has discontinued RTW tickets with miles. I tried engaging Milevalue.com but was not quite impressed with their service in the context of this trip.

Thanks!

cristina puscas (268 days ago)

G'day Srinath

feel free to email us (support@bootsnall.com) and schedule a call to one of the agents.

Cheers,
Cristina

cristina puscas (267 days ago)

Sean, could you help Srinath with a mile specialist referral, please? As you know, on Indie you cannot use miles to pay for the flights.